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Report: Bears Hall Of Famer McAfee Died After Drinking Poison

DENVER, CO - DECEMBER 11: A Chicago Bears helmet sits on the grass before a game against the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on December 11, 2011 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)Bears helmet. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)

CHICAGO (CBS) – In 2009, former Chicago Bears running back and Hall of Famer George McAfee died in an assisted-living facility in Atlanta after he wandered unsupervised into a utility room and drank a bottle of industrial-strength detergent.

McAfee, 90 at the time of his death, had developed dementia in his later years.

ABC News reports McAfee “burned his lips, esophagus and lungs before he died in the hospital, according to his family, which settled with the Emeritus Corporation, the company that ran the facility and took responsibility for his death.”

“It was horrible, horrible,” his daughter, Cheryl Morgan, told the news network. “I cannot begin to tell you how horrific it was. We just hope he wasn’t conscious.”

McAfee, voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1966, was a four-time champion with the Bears in the 1940s.